


turn on the light

by englishghosts



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Non-Explicit Sex, Past Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:01:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25432777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/englishghosts/pseuds/englishghosts
Summary: She shrugs into his jumper, but the sleeves are infinitely longer than her arms. She stretches them for a second, like the superhero in the muggle comic Peter used to like. He laughs and stubs his cigarette against the windowsill. He rolls the sleeves until they fit her. She looks good, bright pink hair contrasting with the faded brown of his jumper.
Relationships: Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	turn on the light

**Author's Note:**

> _"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."_

They walk together after Madam Pomfrey shoos them all out for the sake of Bill’s rest. Their walk through the school grounds is silent. She slips her hand into his. He lets her, finally, feels her soft warm palm against his. Feels like there are a million eyes around them. Feels like they are the only two people there.

They shouldn’t. On top of everything else, Dumbledore is dead. And perhaps precisely because of that, he realizes it doesn’t matter anymore. If they’re all going to die anyway, at least they can have this one last thing.

He wonders if it will be too presumptuous to Apparate them to his flat, but she makes the choice for him. They fall into his small kitchen, the early morning light coming from the crack of window he let open for the cat who sometimes comes in for scraps.

He’s about to ask if she wants tea, then has to rake his brain to remember if he actually has teabags, when she kisses him, and for the first time, he lets her. He could almost sigh with relief at how soft she is. Her hair smells of dust and shampoo.

He wants to be proper about it, take her to the bedroom at least, but she deviates and straddles him on his couch. It's sweet and uncoordinated, and she knocks over the books on the coffee table and elbows him in the face, makes him want to tie her arms behind her ( _no, not yet_ ). She loses her composure as she comes, and for a second, she is mousy-haired and softer around the edges.

After, as he moves to light a cigarette, she asks him to _at least open the window_ , and _these things will kill you_. So he sits on the wide windowsill, leans a bare foot against the other side. He can hear the cars down in the street, the next-door neighbour singing as she makes breakfast. It's rainy and chilly, but then again it always is these days. The world hasn't stopped turning, nor have the skies erupted in fire, because he fucked a girl. Because he fucked Tonks. He figures he should start calling her by her first name, figures she’d punch him in the nose if he kept at it.

_You look good there,_ she says. He smiles as he feels himself blushing, thinks he might have weren’t he old and gray, faded jeans and tee shirt he knows it's The Clash but the printed letters have mostly washed out since 1980. He thinks Sirius would have liked it. He forces himself to stop thinking of Sirius now, of all times, but then again Sirius always had a habit of coming uninvited into his thoughts.

She shrugs into his jumper, but the sleeves are infinitely longer than her arms. She stretches them for a second, like the superhero in the muggle comic Peter used to like. He laughs and stubs his cigarette against the windowsill. He rolls the sleeves until they fit her. She looks good, bright pink hair contrasting with the faded brown of his jumper. He hates himself a little for thinking so, still has to take a moment to realise it's not cheating, has to breathe to allow himself to want this. She is so beautiful, and so, so young.

_Stop thinking so much_ , she says, interrupts him with a kiss. _It'll be okay._

Later they shower together and go out for coffee. Later he feels like a fourteen-year-old on a Hogsmeade weekend as he kisses her at her door. Later he realises she kept his jumper.

He starts to believe her.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [Tumblr](https://englishghosts.tumblr.com)!


End file.
